They have a name for it

I wrote this a week ago but didn't think to press 'publish' so it just sat as a draft...

I have a friend with a baby a few weeks older than mine and she posted this on her facebook.  If you don't read this article, you may not understand what I'm talking (ranting) about.  

Purple crying.  Crying that babies do for no apparent reason, sometimes for hours and hours.  Americans often refer to this as 'colic', stemming from a time when it was thought the crying was due to stomach pain.  This has been discounted for most babies.

Our baby has her cry-ee time some time in the afternoon/evening.  Either from 5-7, or between the hours of 7 and 10.  When it happens she doesn't tend to sleep, she's fussy.  Holding her makes her worse.  She started having these sessions when she was about 3 weeks old.  Her worst bout (so far) was over a five hour period, with a short break in the middle following her meal. 

It doesn't seem to bother Jbird, he can somehow tune it out, but it bothers me.  A lot.  I swear it's worse than 30 ratbag 10 year olds, ten minutes before the bell is going to go and you've flat run out of things to say to them. Each of those minutes can feel like an eternity.  Previous to becoming a mother, I had thought those were the worst minutes anyone could endure.  Now I know. What I don't understand is why ladies who are mothers of children (who presumably were babies once) don't seem to remember and tell me that she seems hungry, and those who haven't have all sorts of 'helpful' advice.  The bottom line is, whatever I do, she probably won't stop until she is ready to stop.

I think she's better than lots of babies.  At least her witching hour is before the dead of night.  And it doesn't happen every single day.  And we have a wonderful electronic swing which nearly always fixes her.  And if we go out or have people over, we can basically avoid it all together.  And 99.999% of the time I know that at ten o'clock I can feed her, burp her, change her, and she'll go to bed smiling and gurgling at me.  And sleep.

  

This all sounds quite positive.  But there are times when I feel as though I'm going crazy because I've tried everything and she just doesn't want to stop. Or she fell asleep only to wake up 30 minutes later.  Why did she wake up again?  Why won't she stop crying?  It makes me feel helpless to not be able to help her even though the experts say it's perfectly normal, and part of her development.  They also say that the new parent will feel helpless and it can aid in both the onset of postnatal depression and difficulties in bonding with the child.  It all seems so contradictory, that I would know I am going to feel helpless and yet I feel helpless.  Jbird and I have had many deep discussions about this very thing.  They never end very well.  

Anyway, I'm glad to have a name for it.  Glad to know it's not just my baby who sometimes seems to be broken.  Glad to know there is an end in site. Glad to have such a beautiful little girl in our family.

"There's no reason to cry, I just cry to cry."